ixigo appoints six independent directors to its board ahead of IPO

Ahead of its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), travel and hotel booking service provider ixigo has appointed six independent members to its board of directors.  

The new independent members of the board are Arun Seth, ex-chairman & trustee NASSCOM Foundation; Mahendra Pratap Mall, ex-chairman & managing director IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited); Shubha Rao Mayya, ex-vice president ICICI Limited & ICICI Prudential Life; Frederic Lalonde, founder & CEO Hopper Inc; Rahul Pandit, managing director & CEO Hamstede Living, ex Lemon Tree Hotels, Ginger Hotels & Rajesh Sawhney, co-founder Innerchef. 

“We are thrilled to welcome six new independent board members bringing rich, diverse and relevant experience to our Board. Together, we will take our iconic travel-tech offerings to the next level,” ixigo’s Group CEO and co-founder, Aloke Bajpai said on Twitter. 

We are thrilled to welcome 6 new independent board members bringing rich, diverse and relevant experience to our Board. Together, we will take our iconic travel-tech offerings to the next level ! pic.twitter.com/LhGHU8x5OL

— Aloke Bajpai (@alokebajpai) August 2, 2021

The developments comes on the heels of ixigo raising Rs 270.3 crore (about $36.5 million) in a funding round led by Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.  

In May, ixigo appointed Ravi Shanker Gupta as its chief financial officer to accelerate its IPO process.  

Launched in 2007 by Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar — computer science graduates from IIT-Kanpur, ixigo is an AI-based travel app based in Gurugram. Offering train, flight and bus bookings across the ixigo and Confirmtkt brands, the company applies AI (artificial intelligence) for deal discovery, personalised recommendations, airfare predictions, alerts, train delay information, PNR confirmation predictions and fully-automated customer service.  

The company is backed by affiliates of Sequoia Capital and Elevation Capital, among other investors.  

Earlier this year, ixigo acquired train discovery and booking entity Confirmtkt in a cash and stock deal.

Following food delivery unicorn Zomato’s strong debut on the stock markets, several consumer internet startups are lining up to tap the public market for growth.   

Payments platforms Paytm and Mobikwik have filed their draft red herring prospectus recently for $2.2 billion and $255 million floats respectively.